Friday, February 28, 2003

Coffee is not really the first thing (not even the first beverage) that springs to mind when someone says "Playboy".

But in the grand tradition of hard hitting business exposes like "The Women of 7 - 11" and "The Women of Enron", Playboy plans to follow up with "The Women of Starbucks". I know that lots of writers hang out there too, so maybe the editors could make it an all Starbucks issue. You know, some journalism and fiction for people who, um, read Playboy for the articles.

Monday, February 24, 2003

I really hate to be late, but there we were, late: Sara, Seliot, the wife and your humble correspondent. After some monumentally poor L.A. traffic decisions (let’s just take the 405 to the 101) on my part, we finally made it to the panel about 30 minutes after it started, but apparently hadn’t missed much.

The discussion had a very different feel from the Chinatown blogfest. For one thing, most of the bloggers were basically journalists, as opposed to the previous panel where the participants seemed to blog as a form of artistic self expression. Also, the acoustics of the two rooms couldn’t have been more different. The Chinatown space had a lively and boisterous feel (not many panel discussions are disrupted by the sounds of a noisy shower upstairs), and the AFI room seemed dead in comparison. Have you ever been in a room that just seems to suck the life out of audience? Think back to your last professional conference, the one where you fell asleep after lunch after the lights dimmed.

Luke Ford’s hilarious logic chain “proving” that most bloggers should be right wing. Distilled to something like - most bloggers are well informed, most well informed people lean toward the right, therefore most bloggers should be right wing. I can’t possibly do justice to his rapid fire delivery or air of confidence.

Friday, February 21, 2003

Thursday, February 20, 2003

A few thoughts on Armed Liberal's post, and his question asking – “what you see as your safety.”

One reason his potential partner has more capital might be that he manages financial risks better than most, perhaps including A.L. I know a decent number of people who have been successful financially, and I wouldn’t consider any of them gamblers. Although our culture has an image of entrepreneurs as aggressive risk takers, the ones I know are not. Although many, if not most of them, are willing to put capital and their reputation on the line, they only do so when the odds are stacked heavily in their favor.

The Millionaire Mind (and to a lesser extent The Millionaire Next Door) explore some of the above issues thoroughly and are certainly worth reading. Rather than being get rich quick guides, these books study the habits of people with money and how they got it. In a sense, they are get rich slow guides

I watch about 7 minutes a week of these shows, usually when my wife calls me in saying “comehere comehere comehere hurry” for some romantic moment or another. I trudge in, watch the vignette, often make a snarky comment, and leave.

Until last night, I would have argued that many watched “those shows” not to see the romance, but to see, in the words of ABC, “who will leave broken hearted”. It’s the same sort of fascination (IMHO) that causes people to rubberneck while driving by accidents on the freeway.

Last night was different. After watching a cannily edited show that implied Charlie would be “The One”, Trista picked Ryan. The Nice Guy. Mr. Sensitive. A poetry writing, animal painting, toilet seat down putting (ok, I’m guessing here) nice guy. As a fellow nice guy, I just have to say

MUWAHAHAHAHHAAHAHA!

It is a pity all nice guys don’t have those pecs, but we work with the tools God gave us, no?

Tuesday, February 18, 2003

Resolved:

That I shall not, nay will not, eat the same sandwich (no matter how good) more than one time per week. Also, I will not purchase more than one bag of either acceptable Dorito color (orangey red and greenish blue) per week, instead I will opt for Trader Joe's potato chips. Yea, though they contain more fat than the aforementioned fried corn snack, they are so, so much cheaper and moreover, leave neither a lingering salty chemical taste in the mouth, nor an unsightly (though tasty) residue on the fingers.

Monday, February 17, 2003

Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Come on, you know you've got one. Some grandiose prediction or another that you might pontificate on after knocking back a few cold ones.

Maybe you've been known to wax eloquent on the "inevitable" ban on fossil fuels, or speak long and loud about Europe's need to abandon the social welfare state as its population ages. Whatever your particular hobbyhorse, now is your chance to back up all that talk - and it's all in the name of charity.

Armed Liberal - Interesting in person, as expected, but also more intense than I anticipated. Not intense as in scary, but intense as "he seems to know and care an awful lot about the things he discusses"

Kitty - got a ton of applause when she introduced herself, and handled herself fine in front of the crowd (better, I think, than she imagines)

I'll probably blog more on the event later, but it was an excellent evening. Good dinner (eat the fried eel Tony!), good companionship, a rather interesting panel discussion capped off by a little blogger networking.

Friday, February 14, 2003

So I heard the Syrian Grand Poo Bah speak this morning. (At least I think he was Syrian, he spoke right before the Frenchman)

Blah blah Israel, blah double standard, blah blah blah.

It reminded me of nothing so much as Eric "Otter" Stratton's speech in Animal House.

"The issue here is not whether we broke a few rules, or took a few liberties with our female party guests — we did. [winks at Dean Wormer] But you can't hold a whole fraternity responsible for the behavior of a few, sick twisted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn't we blame the whole fraternity system? And if the whole fraternity system is guilty, then isn't this an indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you, Greg — isn't this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but we're not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America!"

Did you know that when trying to unlock a car door with your remote it doesn't matter:

-how long you push the button (although on some models this sets the alarm off)
-how hard you push the button
-what angle you hold the remote
-what side of the car you are on, or
-whether the batteries are fresh?

If that car is not yours. Regardless of how much it looks like your car, it just won't open - no matter what.